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Would you buy a Yamaha XS 1100LH Midnight Special

Ah, yeah. When I bought mine, it had all that touring crap tacked on. First thing I did was jettison it. I don't mind dedicated tourers like the GLs and Voyagers, but I can't stand those mongoloid fairings and chintzed on tailboxes. That crap weighed a ton.
 
Grimly said:
Why was it stuffed with brown paper?
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Haha, yeah...leaves. Jackazz who I bought it from bought it from and old guy in nice shape. He then let the damn lay, yes lay, on the ground and get all dirty and crap. Had a decent cover to he didn't use. He was an idiot. A piece of wood under the kickstand would have done wonders for it. Actually in decent shape despite his lack of care...
 
I read an article about a top fuel drag bike XS1100 that used the stock crank & rods on nitro. There was one year only (I forget which) that the the XJ1100 came in a pretty small frame. And the torque on those babies won more than a couple high profile races.
 
The XS I had would easily pull the front wheel off the ground if you were injudicious with throttle when launching.
 
GS1150Pilot said:
Stonking = potent-and large.

Mine was the standard version. I had superbike bars on it, did pods, a 4-1 and jetted it, repainted it, re-covered the seat, stainless brake lines, overhauled all the hydraulics. Rode it for two years trouble free. You have to check 2nd gear on them, because it seems every big bore Yamaha of that decade had issues with them.
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I almost bought one, all high bars and cruiser, about $1500 asking price. Took a short test ride on it, way too Peter Fonda for me.
Bought my 1100G right after, and stripped that down to just a standard bike.
 
As mentioned here the 2nd gear issue happened on lots of bikes. Not 100% sure but I think it had something to do with the larger throw to get past neutral that contributed to the damage.

We had a guy in our shop that just came in on Fridays and spent all his day under cutting dogs for GS's, KZ's, ZZR (ZX), etc.

The XS1100 can be fairly easily converted to chain drive as it has a secondary gearbox that houses the front bevel. You can remove that and get access to the output shaft to add a sprocket. The biggest problem is there is not a lot of room and this limits you to quite a small front sprocket. Probably not a big deal for a drag bike, but not ideal for a street bike.
 
Buffalo Bill said:
I almost bought one, all high bars and cruiser, about $1500 asking price. Took a short test ride on it, way too Peter Fonda for me.
Bought my 1100G right after, and stripped that down to just a standard bike.
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I had the standard version of the XS. It was a great bike aside from the piggish handling.
 
hillsy said:
As mentioned here the 2nd gear issue happened on lots of bikes. Not 100% sure but I think it had something to do with the larger throw to get past neutral that contributed to the damage.
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Also caused by clods doing clutchless changes.
 
hillsy said:
As mentioned here the 2nd gear issue happened on lots of bikes. Not 100% sure but I think it had something to do with the larger throw to get past neutral that contributed to the damage.
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Grimly said:
Also caused by clods doing clutchless changes.
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It was to do with the cogs not fully engaging in 2nd gear. I did the mod on my 2nd XS11 and it requires removing the gear shafts for 2nd gear and placing a spacer/washer from one side to the other of the cog. I believe it can even be done with the engine still in the frame!
 
Cyrano said:
It was to do with the cogs not fully engaging in 2nd gear
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Of course it was - but that is the same for all the gears....except 2nd gear was more prone to damage.

Our guy in the shop who did all the die grinder work on the gears wasn't 100% certain on why but he summed it was due to having the longer throw with neutral in the middle - kinda gave the gears a "run up" to smashing the dogs.

He was a drag racer too, so I figured he knew what he was talking about.
 
Had a '79 XS750. Kept it for awhile after I had other bikes for a loaner, but I still managed to have 82,000 miles on it when I gave it to a friend who wanted any bikes. It was generally pretty solid, had great torque, and handled horribly - someone said it felt like the frame had a hinge in the middle and that sounded about right. Never a problem with 2nd gear, but only about four months after I gave it to Colin, it went out right as he was buying a bright yellow Monster. He gave it away to someone else who just rode it as is.
 
Bert Patterson said:
Had a '79 XS750. Kept it for awhile after I had other bikes for a loaner, but I still managed to have 82,000 miles on it when I gave it to a friend who wanted any bikes. It was generally pretty solid, had great torque, and handled horribly - someone said it felt like the frame had a hinge in the middle and that sounded about right. Never a problem with 2nd gear, but only about four months after I gave it to Colin, it went out right as he was buying a bright yellow Monster. He gave it away to someone else who just rode it as is.
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I bought a '77 standard model new in '78 and put about 80,000 very uninteresting kms on it. After changing to Supersport bars,fiddling with the fork spring rate, fork oil and upgrading the rear shocks to Koni's plus decent rubber it actually handled not to bad. It was totally reliable for that distance other than a few minor glitches (bent valves, my fault) but was a good, solid but boring motorcycle. Biggest trip was a trouble free across Canada trip in 1981. It was a 16,000km over 6 weeks trip with a buddy (point of this post) on a 1980? XS1100 Special equipped with Vetter fairing and full Samsonite luggage. Except for it's crappy gas mileage and small tank it was a pretty good bike and he put lots of trouble free miles on it. If it wasn't for the horsepower it would have been as equally boring as my 750 though. Most of these older UJM's had second gear problems but probably mostly due to getting beaten on. You could ride these bikes, let's say with great enthusiasm, and not have problems if just don't abuse them.
 
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